By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - The Northampton Living Wage Coalition celebrated the first annual Northampton Living Wage Week at Smith College Monday night and honored the memory of Frances Perkins, a Mount Holyoke College graduate who fought for the first national minimum wage after becoming the nation's first female Cabinet member.
The meeting drew about 20 people to the Neilson Library, including Mayor Clare Higgins and City Council President David Narkewicz, and featured speeches from Dan Czitrom, professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, Stephanie Luce, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts' Labor Center and Dale Melcher, labor extension coordinator at UMass Amherst.
Living Wage Week in Northampton was established as part of a Living Wage Resolution passed unanimously last fall by the City Council. The week commemorates the April 10 birthday of Perkins, who was labor secretary under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and who successfully fought for the first national minimum wage and overtime laws, unemployment insurance and the 40-hour work week.
Prior to the addresses, Higgins took to the podium and declared that from now on, the week including April 10 will be recognized as Living Wage Week and noted the importance of local residents asking that area employers offer their workers a base wage of at least $11.90 an hour.
"Earning a living wage is a struggle in this economy and it is going to continue be a struggle in the future," Higgins said. "We need to recognize that we have employers here in Northampton who are willing to meet that challenge and willing to help folks who are having a hard time."
Coalition steering committee member Kitty Callaghan stressed that offering workers a living wage in today's economy will go a long way to fueling an enduring economic recovery.
"This coalition believes that workers shouldn't have to struggle to find food to eat," Callaghan said, adding "We have people right now who are working two or three jobs and still have to go to the Survival Center at the end of the day to get their food for the week."
In a creative twist, Melcher channeled her inner Perkins and spoke as if she were able to comment on the nation's current economic woes. "I urge you to give this ordinance you have passed some teeth," she said, adding that "Poverty is always preventable" and encouraging voters to support the Employee Free Choice Act, currently making its way through Congress.
During her turn at the podium, Luce acknowledged that with a nationwide unemployment rate of 10 percent, now may be a difficult time to petition for higher wages, but it is the appropriate time to do so. "This is the time to recognize that this system isn't working and to reshape the rules of the labor market so that when this economy recovers, it will do so on a foundation that is focused on the needs of the American worker," she said.
Also announced at the meeting was the inaugural list of 14 city businesses that have been certified by the coalition as official living wage employers. They are: Allcroft Facial Plastic Surgery, The Center for New Americans, Fly By Night Inc., The Jamrog Group, Ostrander Law Office, The Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, Valley Community Development Corp., Western Mass Legal Services, Webber and Grinnell Insurance Agency, Spoleto Restaurant, Paradise City Tavern, Mama Iguana's Restaurant and Spoleto Express.
Residents interested in joining the coalition are encouraged to contact Callaghan at 413-584-4034 or kcallaghan@wmls.org.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
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